Good empirical research takes is hard and takes a long time. The idea that you
can essentially duplicate that at the pace of web journalism is absurd, as is the idea that however smart you are you can bigfoot into the realm of legitimate experts in every field and quickly
substitute your judgment for theirs. Obviously we all do that, some, but it's called punditry and opinionating, not data journalism. Knowing a bit of math and statistics doesn't make you an expert in everything. Academia isn't perfect, but there are reasons it takes years to get advanced degrees. There's a a lot to learn, and original research is hard.
